DARPA originally planned to have 20 teams in the final, but decided that none of the other competitors met the minimum safety standards. In the words of DARPA directory Tony Tether – “It would be terrible for one bot to take out another”.

The final will be Webcast live at www.grandchallenge.org, starting at 7:30 a.m. PT (10:30 a.m. ET, 14:30pm GMT). In the meantime, favourites Tartan Racing have some nice videos on their race blog.